sloper



.(No Model.) 2 Sheets--Sheet I. I

B. SLOPER.

1 STEAM BOILER FURNACE. No. 324,889. Patented Aug. 25, 1885.

WITNESSES flttorney' (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

B. SLOPEB. STEAM BOILER FURNACE. N0. 324, 889. Patented Aug. 25. 1885.

I/WE/WOF Y B y Attorney BYRON SLOIER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

STEAM-BOILER FURNACE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 324,889, dated August 25, 1885.

Application filed December 22, 1884. (No model.)

.7 0 all whom, it may concern Beit known that I, BYRON SLOPER, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York city, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and use ful Improvements in Steam-Boiler Furnaces,

of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to certain improve ments in the combustion of fuel in furnaces, and it is especially designed for the production of an intense heat by a thorough and perfect combustion of the fuel.

My invention is designed particularly for use in connection with steam-boiler furnaces for the economical generation of steam, al though it may be applied to other furnaces in which an intense heat is required.

It is a well-established fact that out of about fourteen thousand units of heat contained in a pound of coal only about five thousand units, or a little over onethird, are utilized under the ordinary methods of combustion, the greater portion being lost or wasted. This loss or waste is attributable to a number of causes, among which may be enumerate-d, first, imperfect combustion, owing to the quantity and condition of the air admitted to support combustion second, the cooling and retarding effect of the nitrogen contained in the air, which fully neutralizes, by its superabundance and chilling effect upon the heat of the furnace,

the great advantages which would be otherwise effected by the oxygen in perfectly consuming the carbonicoxide arising from the fuel, which is a most valuable heatin g-gas, and which generally escapes from furnaces of the ordinary construction unconsumed; third, the imperfect combustion caused by the absence of the required or proper proportions of the elements necessary to effect perfect combustion in the furnace, and the necessary means of controlling, regulating, and maintaining the elements at the proper temperature to effect thorough combustion without material lossof heat or unconsumed fuel.

It is the object of my invention to obviate the above-mentioned objections in the combustion of fuel, and experience has proven to me that such objects can be practically effected by introducing or forcing a current of air intensely heatcd say, to about 2,000 Fahrenheit, or a degree equal to the incandescent heat of the walls of the furnace-by means of a current of steam into the combustiouchamher and tire-box of the furnace, and into contact with the gaseous products of combustion and burning fuel, whereby a perfect mutual decomposition of the oxygen-bearing gases and vapors and the carbonaceous fuel and gases is brought about, and a most intense heat produced. i

In the ordinary methods of combustion the large amount of nitrogen in the air, as above stated, interferes with the action of the oxygen in combining with the carbon, by diluting and diffusing it, and preventing the molecules of oxygen from combining in a concentrated state with the molecules of carbon, besides abstracting caloric from the fuel and chilling the heat. I have found, however, that in air, when heated to an incandescent degree or thereabouts, the nitrogen, instead of becoming an inert or inactive agent to retard the work of the oxygen, may be caused to become a positive heating agent and to carry or convey this intense heat to the steam, in order to superheat it, the hot air and steam forming a gaseous vapor, the elements of which possess so little cohesion or affinity that they are almost in thecondition of a nascent gas, ready to unite with other substances for which it has a-ffinity at elevated temperatures such as carbon, either solid, liquid, or in a gaseous formproducing active and rapid combustion and intense heat. In fact, the vapor produced by the admin gled, intensely-heated air and steam possesses the general characteristics of pure oxygen-gas, and produces a positive, defined, and marked result in the combustion of fuel that can only be equaled by the use of pure oxygen. The advantages in economy of fuel and heat, by thus using the intensely heated air and steam, are supplemented by the fact that in thus using the intensely-heated air to superheat the steam no superheating steampipes are necessary, and owing to the in tensity of the heat no such pipes could be used to initially superheat the steam, as no material could resist the action of the heat developed. Therefore, by thus superheating the steam after it leaves the steam pipes by means of the air heated to an incandescent degree at the point of concentration, and just as the steam and air emerge from their eduction-openings I produce an effect that could not be otherwise attained and a heat of the greatest possible intensity.

In some instances the coal or solid fuel does not contain sufficient hydrocarbon, in proportion to the other elements, to bring about the.

may be carried into the furnace along with the steam and intensely-heated air. This material may be in the form of aliquid, powdered, or comminutcd hydrocarbon, or in the form of a gas or vapor, as may prove most desirable.

The said hydrocarbon may be introduced into the opening of the outer shell of the illjector by any suitable means, and is carried into the furnace by the inductive influence of the steam along with the heated air, commingling and combining with the gaseous Vapor resulting from the union of the highly heated air and steam.

In carrying out my invention I preferably employ a furnace constructed as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, although furnaces of other descriptions may be specially adapted to and used for the purpose, as will be evident from the present description of the invention.

In the accompanying drawings, -Figure 1 represents a longitudinal sectional view of a boilerfurnace, showing my invention applied thereto; and Fig. 2 represents a horizontal rectional view of the furnace, taken on the line a; a: of Fig. 1.

The letter A indicates the walls of the furnace, and B. a horizontal boiler of any suitable description properly set therein.

The letter 0 indicates the fire-box, D the gratebars, and E the ashpit, which may be of the usual or any approved construction.

Theletter G indicates the bridge-wall, which is made hollow, and is provided in its interior with interlaced brickwork H, arranged similarly to the brick-work in the regeneratingfurnaces in common use, so as to form passages presenting an extensive heating surface, by which the air may be heated to an incandescent degree. The saidpassage at its lower end communicates by openings H, below the level of the grate-bars, with the ash-pit or with the open air, and at its upper end at each side with the flues K in the side walls of the furnace, which are provided with interlaced brickwork, similar to that of the bridge-wall. The front wall of the furnace is made hollow at each side of the fuel door, and the spaces are filled with interlaced brick-work, as indicated by the letter L, Fig. 2 of the drawings. The spaces in the front wall above mentioned are gradually contracted, leading to the passages M, which open into the injector-passages N, in the front wall of the furnace just above and stratum over and onto the fuel.

in front of the nozzles of the injector P. The injectors project into these openings and are so constructed and arranged as to inject a broad thin stratum over and onto the largest surface of coal. The injector is connected with the steam-dome or dry steam-space of the boiler by a pipe, P, which supplies the steamjet necessary to induce and inject the air after being heated to an incandescent degree. The stca-m-thimble of the injector is preferably made of bronze, which better resists the corrosive action of the steam when lime-water is used in the boiler.

TheletterRindicates an openingin the outer shell of the injector, which shell surrounds the steam thimble, by means of which liquid,

finely powdered, or gaseous hydrocarbon may be introduced into the furnace alongwith the steam andtaiigin case it should be required, as, for instance, where the fuel is deficient in hydrocarbon and cannot, therefore, furnish the essential elements for the thorough decomposition of the air and steam and evolve the desiredintense heat.

- The operation of my invention will be readily understood in connection with the above description, and is as follows The tire is started in the furnace in the usual manner, heating the bridge-wall and hollow side walls and the interlaced brick-work contained therein. When steam begins to be generated and has reached a sufficient degree of pressure, it is turned onto the injector and forced into the fire-box of the furnace upon the incandescent fuel therein. By its inductive action the steam causes a powerful current of induced ,air through the interlaced brick-work of the bridgewall and side walls, and into the furnace, so that the gaseous vapor will be distributed and deflected onto the fuel therein in a broad, thin The air in passing through the highly-heated labyrinth of brick-work in the hollow walls and bridgewall becomes heated to an incandescent temperature, and meeting with the steam superheats it, the two forming an intensely-heated gaseous vapor, which is almost in the state of a nascent gas or combination of gases.

It will be observed that the current of steam induces the current of air through the fines, by which it is heated, and injects it at the nozzle of the injector into the furnace. By,

the point of concentration, just at the eduction-opening of the injector, so as to form a gaseous vapor, of such temperature and in which the elements have so little cohesion that they are, as before stated, almost in a nascent state, and ready to unite instantaneously with the combustible products of com-.

bustion in the furnace, and produce a heat that can only be equaled by the introduction of pure oxygen into the furnace, resulting in the production of the highest attainable heat from the fuel.

When desirable, liquid or other substances rich in hydrocarbon may be admitted to the injector to supply any deficiency of hydrocarbon in the coal or fuel or carbonaceous gases in the heated products of combustion but in any case the gaseous vapor in its limited state of cohesion instantaneously combines with the carbon or hydrocarbon, producing a new, marked, and well-defined result-f that is, a heat of a degree of intensity only hitherto produced in a furnace by the use of pure or comparatively pure oxygengas.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The process herein described of effect ing combustion in furnaces, consisting in first highly heating the air to the degree of incandescence of the Walls of the furnace, then mixing it with steam, then injecting the mixture in such manner as to form a broad thin layer, substantially horizontal, over and upon the fuel, whereby the steam and air are instantaneously decomposed, the neutralizing effect of the nitrogen greatly reduced, and a complete and rapid combustion of the gases produced by which the highest attainable heat is secured.

2. The process herein described ot' combining air heated to the degree of the incandescent walls of the furnace with dry steam,

by which the steam is highly superheated, 

